 Fit for a foot soldier
Abbas Abdi punished twenty
four years too late
By Hassan Farzin
August 13, 2003
The Iranian
A few days ago, I was reading a twelve page letter
dated June 13, 2003, written by Abbas Abdi from Evin
Prison in Tehran. The letter was originally
published in one of the Internet sites (Rooydad)
Before I describe the reason for discussing Abdi's
complaint, an introduction of Mr. Abdi is in order.
Mr. Abdi is one of the three mid level mullah
government employees who conducted (or were accused of
conducting) a survey in Iran last year, trying to poll
the Iranian public opinion towards the United States.
To the extend I understood, the survey was conducted,
wholly or partially, at the request of member(s) of
the Majles deputies, who themselves are hand picked by
the mullahs!
Mr. Abdi, and the two other accused members of the
three member group, were "convicted" a few months ago
based on their "admission" of wrong doing, and Mr.
Abdi was sentenced to ten (10) years in prison. I
believe the other two members either were acquitted,
or lightly sentenced, but were freed by the "judge."
Mr. Abdi, however, has a much more colorful past.
He, along with a number of the current not-so-hot shots in
Iran, including one of the current "Vice Presidents" of the mullah government, led a gang of criminals who
climbed over the walls and gates of the United States
Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and took a number of U.S.
diplomats and other workers hostage for 444 days.
The crimes of this hostage taking gang, supported
by Khomeini himself, are well known and documented. The
gangster activities that were actually conducted or
supervised by Mr. Abdi in the U.S. Embassy compound,
and in the prison that housed U.S. diplomats, included
beatings, mock executions, long and senseless
interrogations, and sleep deprivation. The idea behind
this hostage taking had nothing to do with the
U.S.-Iranian relationship.
In the early times after
the start of Iran's Khomeini troubles, and before
gangster mullah bosses had been able to consolidate
their grip on the sources of money and guns in Iran,
it was becoming obvious to them that their lies were
losing effect. They knew their rule was in danger of
collapse, and they needed a diversion from their
domestic troubles so that while people were
preoccupied with an external issue, such as hostage
taking, the mobsters could move to consolidate their
grip on the sources of money and guns, and impose
their rule.
Mr. Abdi, then only a foot soldier in the mullah
gagster enterprise, showed effective brutality with
hostages, and hence became one of the leaders of that
gang. He was later promoted and received numerous
rewards for his ruthlessness in handling of the
hostages.
In fact, he must have had demonstrated so
much willingness to personally impose inhumane
treatment of the hostages and prisoners under his
control that the gangster bosses gave him additional
assignments of kidnaping and holding other people, as
well as interrogation and torture. Mr. Abbas Amir
Entezam, Deputy Prime Minister, and later ambassador
to Sweden, under Mr. Bazargan's government, is another
one of Mr. Abdi's kidnaped victims turned into long
term prisoner.
Some readers may have more
information regarding this criminal character and his
tendencies as a terrorist, kidnaper, hostage taker,
torturer, and perhaps even as a murderer. My own
information about Mr. Abdi's character does not go
deeper than what has been printed in newspapers. In
general, anyone who takes human beings as hostage,
regardless of the "reason" for such behavior, or
excuses offered, must have tremendous criminal
tendencies. Mr. Abdi cannot be excepted from this
general rule.
It is hoped that enough background information is
given here so that the reader sees this criminal for
what he is. I am confident that Mr. Abdi's criminal
activities have gained plenty of rewards for him,
including money, government positions, perhaps a house
or two, one of the Shah's cars (!), etc., etc.
The
reader should only remember that this person is a
career criminal, in a sense that he commits crimes
against innocent human beings with pleasure, and
without any remorse, and for a price. In his case, we
know for certain that he has received jobs and
government positions for which he has no
qualifications, as payout for his criminal activity;
at least the "judge" who sentenced him has said so!
Now the point for which I described the above
background information: In his twelve page letter
(written in Farsi) Mr. Abdi has described the "
Gestapo" style attack on his apartment in the middle
of the night. Being pulled out of his bed while his
wife and kid(s) watched in horror, arrested and filmed
(yes, filmed) while his apartment was being ransacked,
and all his papers and valuables taken away.
He has been subjected to lengthy interrogations
on several occasions while he was tied to a bench in the
prison interrogation chamber, blindfolded to assure he
is unable to see anyone or anything, being subjected
to multiple threats, more than once being subjected to
kangaroo style interrogations and court trials. As he
tells it, he finally accepts what he considers to be a
plea bargain: he will write the confession papers as
the "judge" dictates to him, and be publicly
sentenced, in exchange for the promise of being
released from prison within two days of the sentencing
date.
Unfortunately for Mr. Abdi, his former comrades
and bosses do what all mobsters do: they lie. Mr. Abdi is
kept in prison; he is upset and unhappy. He should be
reminded that mobster code of ethics (!) dictate that
he be liquidated. The fact that he is still alive
should indeed be good news to his mother!
Although much of his letter contains descriptions
of events from his arrest to conviction, including a
terrible prison life, the main point he is trying to
communicate to the reader is not the short comings of
the prison system, but the "injustice" and "
illegality" of his imprisonment. He declares that his
imprisonment is "against Islamic principals," and "
against civilized norms of behavior!" He recites many
articles of "law" for which the "judge" who
interrogated him, and subsequently convicted him, has
ignored the "rule of law."
Stories that he tells about his arrest, his
description of the prison, interrogations,
sleeplessness, the interrogators' threats for beating
and killing him, as well as threats of torture against
his family members, is shocking.
One of the
unmistakable threats made to him involves his wife:
several times during the interrogation, the "judge" makes threats to charge his wife with phantom crimes,
and bring her into the general prison population,
unless Mr. Abdi cooperates with what the judge needs
to "prove." The implication being that the wife could
receive sexual assaults within the prison population,
unless he agrees to admit what the "judge" dictates to
him. And all this for a lousy poll taking job, if we
are to believe Mr. Abdi's story!
Here is the point that I am trying to make: The
man who is complaining about relatively "small" injustices
(compared to kidnaping, hostage taking, and murder) is
the person who took diplomats of a foreign government
hostage for 444 days, against all norms of civilized
behavior, against the international (and Iranian) law,
and against the teachings of Islam, including those
teachings that even the murderous mullahs accept.
Is this not interesting?
Or laughable? When Mr. Abdi is caught in the same lawlessness net
and structure
that he helped to create, he complains about the lack
of proper application of the law, and civilized norms
of conduct and justice! From his point of view, it
must have been just fine when he personally was
violating all standards of behavior and justice,
including kidnaping, taking hostage, torturing,
beating, and perhaps even murdering innocent people!
It is "terrible," and "inhuman" when he is
the
subject of such violation!
When I first heard of Mr. Abdi's conviction for
10 years prison in the hands of a "judge," (who,
by-the-way is in the same class as Mr. Abdi himself) I
was moved with happiness. I thought that at least one
of the criminals participating in the kidnaping of
innocent people is caught and will at least be getting
part of the punishment that he deserves, even if it is
on a trumped up and unrelated charge.
When I read his
letter, though, I was reminded of the "justice" system that the murderous mullah government has set up
in Iran. I was extremely saddened about the terrible
faith of thousands of innocent Iranians who are
arrested daily on trumped up charges.
I did not know if I should start dancing in the street
for this criminal low life getting punished twenty
four years too late, even on an unrelated charge; or
cry for the injustices, looting and destruction that the murderous
mullah government has brought to this nation.
A criminal enterprise is run by criminals for the
sole purpose of the boss' gain, who in turn distributes
some of the crumbs of the loot among his foot
soldiers, enforcers, and mid level captains. When such
an enterprise is overlaid on a government, the target
of extortion would be the wealth of the governed. Enforcement
must then be imposed on all who raise their voice, or head, seeking
freedom and objecting to
the looting that is going on. Enforcement must also be
imposed on one of their own gangster foot soldiers
whose goal may have been to steal more than his share
of the loot!
Mr. Abdi appears not to have learned this
lesson when he started his criminal career twenty four
years ago: the boss decides what a foot soldier's
share is! He should be reminded of the wisdom written
in a poetic form long ago. The poetry is in Farsi, but it
is written here using the English alphabet, followed
by a rough translation into English. I hope that those
who can read Farsi will remember the original poetry.
Az mokaafaat-eh amal ghaafel masho
Gandom az gandom berouyad, joe ze joe.
Rough translation:
Do not forget the consequences
of your actions
[Be aware that only] Wheat will grow from [sowing]
wheat, barley from [sowing] barley.
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Fit for a foot soldier
